Domestic Violence Illustrated by Display

About 500 T-shirts were hung shoulder-to-shoulder in clothesline fashion on the outside quad of the University Student Union at Cal State Northridge on Thursday.

The Clothesline Project, a collection of T-shirts made by survivors and friends and family members of victims of sexual violence, was displayed at the third annual Ending Violence Against Women Conference.

“The number 500 really means nothing unless you see how many shirts there are and it’s quite overwhelming when you see it in person,” said Jean Morrison, conference coordinator. “Each shirt represents an experience, and in some cases, a woman who has died.”

“It shows that too many women are being battered,” said senior business major Sossy Dombourian. “It’s amazing because I personally don’t know of anyone being battered, but when you see all those T-shirts, you realize that it’s a big problem.”

About 700 CSUN students and 300 community members attended the daylong event sponsored by the CSUN Student Health Center.

Morrison said the goal of the conference was to enhance community knowledge on violence prevention education through a series of workshops on issues concerning women and their families, such as relationship violence, public attitudes on rape, the relationship between substance abuse and violence, date rape and domestic violence.

“We are trying to give each community member here today the tools they need to work with each other to prevent violence,” Morrison said. “Unless we have everyone working together, this problem is not going to end.”